The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of distinction between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
-- Sir William Francis Butler

Jim Collins is a good writer who has obviously thought a lot about what makes a company successful. He makes some solid points about characteristics of a good company - focus, discipline, etc. I wouldn't say there's a formula in this book, but it's got a bunch of good case studies and profiles and generally contains a lot of wisdom.